Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 354

Chapter 354

A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, despite everything.

“All of that is only possible if we give this child the chance to be born.” I squeezed her hands. “And Pat, think about this. After everything you did yesterday, after all that pain, this child survived. Does that not tell you something? Does that not feel like a sign?”

She was quiet for a long moment. “I do not know.”

“And look at the timing.” I sat back. “Kingsley is coming around at this exact moment. Why do you not want to give him a chance?”

Pat’s face shuttered. “Celeste.”

“I know what he did. What he and Seraphine did to you was despicable, and I am not excusing it. But Kingsley was between a rock and a hard place. Seraphine had a hold on him, and even though following his conscience meant he was going to lose, in the end he did the right thing. He destroyed that video. He walked away from her scheme.” I held her gaze. “Does that not tell you something about who he is?”

“He used me.”

“He made a terrible mistake. People do that, Pat. Some mistakes are unforgivable, I know. But he is here now, on his knees, begging for a chance to make it right.” I squeezed her hand. “And think about this. He has his wealth back. He could walk into any room in this city and have his pick of women. He has a thousand options, Pat. And he still came back for you.”

Pat looked down at her hands.

“And have you looked at him?” I grinned. “He is a very sexy man. It would hardly be a loss to you.”

She let out a wet laugh. “Celeste.”

“I am serious.” I shrugged. “And I have a strong feeling Kingsley will make a good father. He is a good son, after all.”

“He does not love me.” Her voice was quiet. “I don’t want a family with a man who does not love me. I will not trap a man with a child. Never.”

“But how would he fall in love with you if you do not give yourselves a chance to get to know each other?” I asked. “His time with you at Helix was short-lived, and it was built on a lie. But now things could be different. Now he could actually see you, Pat. The real you. Give him that chance.”

Pat sighed, long and heavy. “It is not just that.”

“What else?”

She would not meet my eyes. “I am two years older than him.”

“Age is nothing but a number, Pat. As long as the two of you are mature enough to handle what comes and ready to put in the work, you can have one of the best relationships this city has ever seen. But you will never know that if you do not give him a chance. Do you remember the saying, the one they print on greeting cards and whisper at funerals? In the end, what we regret most are not the words we said, but the chances we failed to take.”

Pat looked at the wall above my shoulder. “That is a lovely thing to say at a wedding, Celeste. It is considerably less lovely when you are the one holding the failed chance.”

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“Then let me tell you about failed chances.” I was still holding her hand. “You of all people know that years ago, before Julian, Dominic and I could have happened. I saw him first. I felt it first. And I let Seraphine beat me to him. I stood back and watched her take what I wanted, and I buried that chance so deep I forgot it had ever existed.”

Pat sighed. “Yeah. I remember. It was one of the reasons I could never forgive Seraphine for coming after your ex- husband, when she had practically thrown herself between you and Dominic back then.”

I shrugged. “If I had taken that chance, if I had walked up to him the night Seraphine did, we might have had a child of our own by now. But I did not. And it took Julian and Seraphine betraying me, humiliating me, to hand me a second opportunity to snatch back what I lost.

Tell me, Pat, what if I had never gotten that chance again? What if Dominic had moved on to some other woman and I spent the rest of my life watching him love her from a distance? I would have surely regretted it. It is better to try and fail than to live with the question. At least then you know.”

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